Kbps to Mbps Converter
1,000 kbps = 1 Mbps. Bitrates are always decimal.
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Bitrates have no binary ambiguity
Unlike storage, network and audio rates are always decimal. A kilobit per second is a thousand bits per second, and a megabit per second is a million. There is no 1,024 anywhere in this conversion.
1 Mbps = 1,000 kbps
Audio bitrates are the most common use. A 320 kbps MP3 is 0.32 Mbps; a 128 kbps stream is 0.128. For video, a 5,000 kbps stream is 5 Mbps, which is roughly what HD streaming needs.
Remember that these are bits. To get megabytes per second, divide by eight: a 5 Mbps stream uses 0.625 MB every second.
Kilobits per second
A thousand bits every second. It is the unit for audio bitrates — 128 kbps for ordinary MP3, 320 kbps for high quality — and for older connection speeds.
Bitrates always use decimal prefixes. A kilobit per second is a thousand bits per second, never 1,024.
Megabits per second
A million bits every second, and the unit broadband is sold in. A 100 Mbps line carries at most 12.5 megabytes per second, because eight bits make a byte.
That factor of eight is why a connection advertised as 100 never shows 100 in a download manager: the advertisement is in bits and the download manager counts bytes.
The working, step by step
Every line updates with whatever you type above. The point is the method, which is the same for any pair of units in this family.
The same quantity, two different numbers
One physical amount, read off two scales. The tick marks do not line up, and the gap between them is the conversion factor made visible.
Your turn
Reading a method and being able to use it are different things. Answer within half a per cent and it counts as correct.
Score: 0 of 0
How to use this converter
- Type into either box. The other side updates as you go; there is no button to press.
- Swap the direction with the button between the boxes, carrying your value across.
- Set the decimals if the default is more or less precision than you need.
- Copy the answer with its unit, ready to paste.
- Use the shortcut buttons for the values that come up most often.
- Share the result. The address bar tracks what you type, so the link you copy opens on the same number.
Common uses and tips
Where these conversions come up
- Buying storage. A drive sold as 1 TB shows up as 931 GB in Windows. Nothing is missing; the two are counting in different bases.
- Upload limits. Attachment and upload caps are stated in MB, and file managers report sizes in MB too — but not always the same MB.
- Mobile data. Allowances are in GB, app usage is reported in MB.
- Broadband speed. Sold in megabits, downloaded in megabytes, eight times apart.
- Backups and disk planning, where a few per cent of convention error compounds into real numbers at terabyte scale.
The big one: decimal against binary
There are two conventions, and both are in daily use.
- Decimal. A kilobyte is 1,000 bytes, a megabyte 1,000,000, a gigabyte 1,000,000,000. This is what the SI prefixes actually mean, and what storage manufacturers use.
- Binary. A kilobyte is 1,024 bytes, a megabyte 1,048,576, a gigabyte 1,073,741,824. Memory is built in powers of two, so this is what operating systems grew up using.
The gap widens with every step: 2.4 % at kilobytes, 4.9 % at megabytes, 7.4 % at gigabytes, 9.95 % at terabytes. That is why a 1 TB drive reports as 931 GB — a difference of 69 GB that looks like missing capacity and is not.
The standards bodies resolved this in 1998 by inventing separate binary prefixes: KiB, MiB, GiB and TiB for the powers of two, leaving KB, MB, GB and TB for the powers of ten. Linux mostly adopted them. Windows did not, and still labels binary quantities with decimal names.
Bits and bytes
Eight bits make a byte. Capitalisation is the only thing distinguishing them: Mb is megabits, MB is megabytes.
Network speeds are sold in bits and files are measured in bytes, which is why a 100 Mbps connection downloads at about 12.5 MB/s. The connection is not underperforming; the units differ by a factor of eight.
Tips worth knowing
- Bitrates are always decimal. A kilobit per second is 1,000 bits per second, never 1,024. The binary ambiguity affects storage, not speed.
- RAM is always binary. An 8 GB memory module is 8 GiB — 8,589,934,592 bytes — because memory is addressed in powers of two.
- Check which convention a figure uses before comparing two of them. Comparing a decimal number with a binary one is where the confusion starts.
Values people look up most
Each one opens the converter with the number already in it.
- 64 kbps to Mbps
- 96 kbps to Mbps
- 128 kbps to Mbps
- 160 kbps to Mbps
- 192 kbps to Mbps
- 224 kbps to Mbps
- 256 kbps to Mbps
- 320 kbps to Mbps
- 500 kbps to Mbps
- 1,000 kbps to Mbps
- 1,500 kbps to Mbps
- 2,000 kbps to Mbps
- 5,000 kbps to Mbps
- 8,000 kbps to Mbps
- 10,000 kbps to Mbps
- 20,000 kbps to Mbps
- 50,000 kbps to Mbps
- 100,000 kbps to Mbps
Quick reference
| Kilobits per second | Megabits per second |
|---|---|
| 64 kbps | 0.064 Mbps |
| 128 kbps | 0.128 Mbps |
| 192 kbps | 0.192 Mbps |
| 256 kbps | 0.256 Mbps |
| 320 kbps | 0.32 Mbps |
| 1,000 kbps | 1 Mbps |
| 2,000 kbps | 2 Mbps |
| 5,000 kbps | 5 Mbps |
| 10,000 kbps | 10 Mbps |
| 100,000 kbps | 100 Mbps |
Questions people ask
How many kbps in 1 Mbps?
Exactly 1,000. Bitrates use decimal prefixes only.
Is 320 kbps good audio quality?
It is the highest common MP3 bitrate, and near-transparent for most listeners. 128 kbps is noticeably compressed.
How do I convert Mbps to MB/s?
Divide by eight. A 100 Mbps connection delivers at most 12.5 MB/s.